_ prep. _with. Q. lé.
Sindarin
di
preposition. beneath (not touching), under, beneath (not touching), under; [N.] in
di
preposition. with
di
preposition. with
di'nguruthos
di'nguruthos
di-
prefix. beneath, under
The only known usage of this word is as prefix, but VT/45:37 lists it as a unitary word di
sui mín i gohenam di ai gerir úgerth ammen
as we forgive those who trespass against us
The eighth line of Ae Adar Nín, Tolkien’s Sindarin translation of the Lord’s Prayer (VT44/21). The first word is the preposition sui “as”. The second word has the same form as mín “our” but seems to function as men “us” (as it appeared in the first draft of this sentence). The third word is i “who”, followed by gohenam, the 2nd-pl inflection of the verb gohena- “to forgive” with its direct object di, the lenited form of the pronoun ti “them”.
The function of the sixth word ai (“those who”) is difficult to decipher. See the entry for that word for further discussion.
The seventh word gerir is a lenited form of cerir (as it appeared in the draft), which itself is the plural of the verb car- “to do”. This followed by úgerth, the plural of úgarth “trespass, ✱misdeed” and ammen “to us”, a combination of an “to, for” and men “us”.
Decomposition: Broken into its constituent elements, this phrase would be:
> sui mín i gohena-m di [← ti] ai gerir [← cerir] úgerth am-men = “✱as us who forgive-we them who do-(plural) trespasses to-us”
The sense of this phrase seems to be: “as us, who forgive those who do trespasses to us”.
Conceptual Development: Tolkien wrote a draft version (I) before producing a revised version (II) of this phrase (VT44/22, note on line 8). For “as we [us]”, Tolkien used the preposition sui “as” in both versions, but for “us” Tolkien wrote mín >> men in the draft, and then mí ni >> mín in the revision. Of these, men “us” seems to me to be the most consistent with Tolkien’s use of this pronoun elsewhere. Bill Welden discussed possible interpretations of this pronoun usage on VT44/28.
For “forgive”, Tolkien first wrote dihenam in the draft, which is another form of the verb díhena- “forgive” used in the previous line of the prayer. Tolkien replaced this with góhenam in the draft, which appeared as gohenam in the revised phrase. As pointed out by Bill Welden (VT44/29), it isn’t clear whether Tolkien intended to replace díhena- with gohena- generally as the Sindarin verb for “forgive”, or whether both verbs were valid with slightly different connotations.
See the entry for the word ai “✱those who” for a discussion of the development of that word (ayath >> ay >> ai).
Tolkien reversed the order of úgarth “trespass” and cerir “do-(plural)” between the draft and revised versions, which required changing cerir to its lenited form gerir (which Tolkien first wrote mistakenly as garer in the revised version before correcting it to gerir).
In the draft version, Tolkien wrote ann for “against us”, but as Bill Welden points out (VT44/22), Tolkien almost certainly intended ammen as it appeared in the revised version and elsewhere in the prayer, and simply failed to complete this form in the draft.
| I |II| |sui| |{mín >>} men|{mí ni >>} mín| |i| |{dihenam >>} góhenam|gohenam| |di| |{ayath >> ay >>} ai|ai| |ugerth|{garer >>} gerir| |cerir|úgerth| |ann|ammen|
le nallon sí di’nguruthos
here overwhelmed in dread of Death I cry
dî
in
unstressed di (beneath, under) (VT45:37). Note: a homophone means ”bride, lady”.
dî
beneath
dî, unstressed di (in, under) (VT45:37). Note: a homophone means ”bride, lady”.
dî
beneath
unstressed di (in, under) (VT45:37). Note: a homophone means ”bride, lady”.
i
that
(+ soft mutation), basically in in the plural, but often loses the n which is then replaced by nasal mutation of the next consonant (e.g. gyrth i chuinar ”dead that live [cuinar]”, Letters:417). Sometimes i (+ soft mutation) is used in the singular as well. – The form ai (following by lenition) occurs in the phrase di ai gerir ✱”those who do” (VT44:23). Possibly it is a form of the relative pronoun that is used when the previous word ends in -i. Whether ai is both sg. and pl. is unclear; in its one attestation it is followed by a plural verb that is lenited.
ti
those
(or ”they”?): possibly *ti (attested in lenited form di in the phrase di ai… ”those/they who…”) (VT44:23)
ti
those
(attested in lenited form di in the phrase di ai… ”those/they who…”) (VT44:23)
vi
in
(prep.) 1) vi (VT44:23), with article vin; 2) ne, ned (used of time in the source), possibly followed by hard mutation (SD:129); 3) dî, unstressed di (beneath, under) (VT45:37). Note: a homophone means ”bride, lady”.
adu
adjective. double
ti
pronoun. *they
dess
young woman
(i ness, o ndess, constuct des), pl. diss (i ndiss).
díneth
bride
(i níneth, o ndineth), pl. dínith (i ndínith)
dî
bride
- dî (i nî, o ndi) (lady), no distinct pl. form except with article (i ndî), 2) díneth (i níneth, o ndineth), pl. dínith (i ndínith)
dî
bride
(i nî, o ndi) (lady), no distinct pl. form except with article (i ndî)
edaid
double
(adj.) 1) edaid; no distinct pl. form, 2) tadol (lenited dadol, analogical pl. dedyl)
edaid
double
; no distinct pl. form
na
with
(in instrumental sense?) na (followed by lenition), with article nan (followed by ”mixed mutation”, according to David Salos reconstruction). The preposition has various meanings: ”with, by, near” and also ”to, toward, at; of”
na
with
(followed by lenition), with article nan (followed by ”mixed mutation”, according to David Salo’s reconstruction). The preposition has various meanings: ”with, by, near” and also ”to, toward, at; of”
nind
fragile
nind (thin, slender); no distinct pl. form
nind
fragile
(thin, slender); no distinct pl. form
neth
nessa
Neth, also called Díneth ”the young bride” (na Nineth)
neth
nessa
also called Díneth ”the young bride” (na Nineth)
edaid
adjective. double
tâd
cardinal. two
ui-
prefix. twi-
adaneth
noun. (mortal) woman
arwen
noun. noble woman
bess
noun. (young) woman
bess
noun. wife
edaid
ordinal. double
han
that
pl1. hain _pron. _that, the thing previously mentioned. Tolkien notes "hain = heinn (< san-)" (PE17:42). Im Narvi hain echant 'I Narvi made them'.
mi
preposition. in
The Sindarin word for “in” (PE23/133; VT50/5), equivalent to Q. mi of the same meaning. This preposition frequently appears in its mutated form vi (PE22/165; VT44/21; VT50/5), since Sindarin prepositions are typically mutated when appearing anywhere other than the beginning of a phrase.
min-
preposition. (in) between (referring to a gap, space, barrier or anything intervening between two other things)
mîn
preposition. (in) between (referring to a gap, space, barrier or anything intervening between two other things)
na
preposition. with, by (also used as a genitive sign)
na
preposition. to, towards, at
ned
preposition. (uncertain meaning) in, of (about time, e.g. giving a date)
[Another possible interpretation: "another, one more" (related to Q. net(e)), VT/47:40]
san
pronoun. that
tad
cardinal. two
tâd
cardinal. two
vi
preposition. in
vi
preposition. in
adaneth
mortal woman
(pl. edenith), also firieth (pl. firith).
bess
woman
bess (i vess, construct bes) (wife), pl. biss (i miss). The word etymologically means ”wife”, but the meaning was generalized.
bess
woman
(i vess, construct bes) (wife), pl. biss (i miss). The word etymologically means ”wife”, but the meaning was generalized.
gwanur
kinsman
(i ’wanur) (brother), pl. gwenyr (in gwenyr). Note: a homophone of the sg. means ”pair of twins”.
iell
maid
- iell (-iel) (girl, daughter), pl. ill, 2) sell (i hell) (daughter, girl), pl. sill (i sill), coll. pl. sellath** **
iell
maid
(-iel) (girl, daughter), pl. ill
ne
in
ned (used of time in the source), possibly followed by hard mutation (SD:129)
ne
in, inside
(prefix) (mid-)
sa
pronoun. that
sai
pronoun. those
sell
maid
(i hell) (daughter, girl), pl. sill (i sill), coll. pl. *sellath*** **
tad-dal
two-legged
(lenited dad-dal), pl. tad-dail.
tadol
double
(lenited dadol, analogical pl. dedyl)
taw
that
(demonstrative pronoun) ?taw. _Only the ”Old Noldorin” form tó is actually given in LR:389 s.v. _
taw
pronoun. that
taw
that
. Only the ”Old Noldorin” form tó is actually given in LR:389 s.v.
tâd
cardinal. two
- tâd (in compounds tad-, as in tad-dal ”two-legged”), 2) (adjectival prefix) ui- (twi-, both).
tâd
two
(in compounds tad-, as in tad-dal ”two-legged”)
ui
twi-
(adjectival prefix) ui- (two, both)
ui
two
(twi-, both).
vi
in
(VT44:23), with article vin
A preposition appearing in the A Elbereth Gilthoniel prayer in the phrase le nallon sí di’nguruthos (LotR/729). This phrase is loosely translated as “here overwhelmed in dread of Death I cry” (RGEO/64; PE17/21). However, Tolkien gave a more exact translation “to thee I cry here beneath-death-horror” (RGEO/64), and said that di actually means “beneath, not touching, under” as a derivative of primitive ✶ndī (PE17/95).
Conceptual Development: The Etymologies of the 1930s had N. di “in” under the root ᴹ√NDI/DI of the same meaning as ᴹ√MI [“in”] (EtyAC/NDI). This entry had a brief phrase {ni >>} di ngorgoros, probably an early draft of A Elbereth Gilthoniel. Thus the “loose” translation “in dread of death” may have been Tolkien’s original intended meaning; compare N. Gorgoroth “Deadly Fear” (Ety/ÑGOROTH).
It seems that sometime in the 1960s Tolkien changed his mind on the meaning of di. He initially toyed with connecting it to Q. lé “with”, but changed his mind to the derivation from ✶ndī “beneath” as given above (PE17/95). This is meaning he gave to di in the song-cycle The Road Goes Ever On published in 1967 (RGEO/64).
Earlier still, the Gnomish Lexicon of the 1910s had di as the definite variant of the preposition G. da (GL/29). Tolkien specified the preposition was used with the “allative only”, but its gloss was hard to read, either “with” or maybe “into”. This preposition appeared in the full Gnomish title of the Lexicon itself: i·Lam na·Ngoldathon “Goldogrin” di Sacthoðrin, untranslated but perhaps meaning “✱the Language of the Gnomes ‘Goldogrin’ [translated] into English”, or “✱with English [translations]”.